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The architect on a now-shelved renovation of the historic Indianola Middle School has sued the
Columbus school board in federal court for more than $41 million.

Tony Udeagbala, whose East Side architecture firm Machisa Design Services was assigned to the
project, says Columbus’ facilities director discriminated against him because he’s black and from
Nigeria. The suit, filed on Thursday in U.S. District Court, names nine defendants, including the
board, the board president, superintendent, two other architecture firms, two members of the
district’s building-oversight committee and the Ohio School Facilities Commission.

The district ended its contract with Machisa in February right before construction began on a
$26 million renovation of the Indianola building, which was to house combined French and Spanish
immersion schools.

“We believe the lawsuit is without merit, and we intend to defend against it vigorously,”
district spokesman Jeff Warner said. The state facilities commission doesn’t comment on pending
lawsuits, spokesman Rick Savors said.

The suit says Columbus’ facilities chief, Carole Olshavsky, “sabotaged Machisa at every
opportunity” and was “meddlesome” and that the board changed the scope of work on the
school-building project “at a whim.”

“Carole Olshavsky does not like the architect because he is black, he has an accent, and she got
the thing canceled,” Udeagbala said in an interview.

District officials initially cited structural problems with the building site and cost overruns
as a reason to put the project on hold. But after board members pushed for answers about what had
gone wrong, Olshavsky said Machisa wasn’t qualified to do the complex job on its own and that the
firm had parted ways with its major design partner, global construction-services company URS.

Further, Olshavsky said, Udeagbala hadn’t notified anyone that URS was out of the picture. The
district tried to pair Machisa with another large company, but that fell apart, too.

Udeagbala’s lawsuit charges that Columbus officials made it impossible for him to do his job by
calling for changes to the project but taking a long time to formalize them. The suit also says
Columbus didn’t pay Machisa in a timely fashion and has made negative and untrue statements about
the firm’s ability to get the job done. The firm is being paid $680,000 for the work it did before
the contract was terminated.

“It was done and designed. And now they cancel it because somebody does not like the architect,”
Udeagbala said.

The suit seeks $30 million in compensatory damages, charging that Udeagbala and Machisa were
discriminated against because of race and were deprived of “equal protection” under the law. The
suit, which also says the defendants violated Machisa’s due process rights, seeks about $1.35
million for breach of contract and $10 million in punitive damages.

The two language-immersion schools likely will now be housed in separate buildings elsewhere in
the district. The Indianola building, which closed as a middle school two years ago, probably will
be sold.